The invention relates to a weft yarn clamp for clamping and releasing weft yarns of a weaving machine, the weft yarn clamp comprising a first and a second clamping element at least one clamping element of which is a clamping means controlled by an actuator.
In EP 1 016 745 a device is described with a controllable weft yarn supplying and clamping device for weaving machines, in which a clamping element of a weft yarn clamp is provided for clamping and releasing a weft yarn, the said clamping element being program-controlled by an actuator, the duration of clamping and releasing being freely programmable. The actuators may be of the piezo-electric, electromagnetic, pneumatic-electric or hydraulic-electric type elements or comprise an electric motor.
The disadvantage of these devices is that the actuators have a considerable mass, because of which they are therefore less suitable to be installed on a lever moving rapidly back and forth. Moreover, these actuators take up much space and they are rather expensive.